Friday, November 23, 2012
Sixpence from 1652 sells for $430K at Md. auction
MELVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — A silver Colonial Massachusetts coin from 1652 that was found in a potato field has been auctioned for $430,000.
Newsday reports that an East Hampton, N.Y., woman found the coin 23 years ago with a metal detector.
It garnered four times as much as auction officials expected. It was sold last week at the Colonial Coin Collectors Club in Baltimore.
The coin is one of eight known to exist.
It was first auctioned in 1992 by Lillian King and sold to an auction house for $35,200. The man who ended up buying the coin from the auction house resold it last week for the large sum.
King tells the newspaper that she wishes she had waited to sell the coin.